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Monday, July 26, 2010

I think you've realized by now that I have a serious weakness over mango and passion fruit. I used to underestimate these two fruits when I was back in Indonesia, we had so many varieties of mango and you can pretty much find all of the exotic tropical fruit there, some I don't even know what to call or if they have any name. It was only after I moved here, especially after I started baking, that I realized how precious they are, but I guess it's a trade off because you can't really find fresh raspberry or blueberry in Indonesia, it is like finding needle among hays if you try. They have strawberries, but nothing like sweet California strawberry in summer time. I think they have this mindset that strawberry is supposed to be that tart. Yes, strawberries in Indonesia are so tart that it is so painful to eat it fresh. People usually use them in smoothie or cake decoration.

It is no secret that it runs in my family for our love for mango. I could probably survive the whole day just by eating mango. Too bad US doesn't have as many variety as in Indonesia for mango, but I think it's a fair trade since we can find all the gorgeous stone fruits and berries here.

I've been in charge for feeding the whole family for the past month because my nephew's and niece's grandma who usually cooks for us, she went back to Indo for a few months. So technically, I was half-mom, sometimes playing the role of a full-time mom these days, that includes taking care of the baby, cook for the whole family and making sure they're well-fed, cleaning up, bathe them, etc on top of my full-time job. So my poor niece and nephew now have to eat dinner at 9-9:30pm because by the time I got home at 8pm from work, I need to start cooking and cleaning up.

I was actually making this to celebrate my brother's birthday two weeks ago. I've been making mango cakes for the last two years for him or the wife or the son. The birthday fell on Friday, which was actually perfect since we celebrated it on Saturday, but the cheesecake wasn't done until Saturday evening and it needed a good few hours in the fridge. So yeah, we didn't have any cake after dinner that night, so we just ate it as dessert, which is good in some way I guess because I can cut them up and decorate them individually to make them look more cute.

I used almond crust for the base, it's actually a mixture of almond powder and graham cracker crumbs. I love this type of crust a lot more than the plain old graham cracker crumbs, and I keep coming back to them everytime I'm making cheesecake. As usual, I kinda mix and weigh at the same time to find out how much stuff I put it. The end result was slightly tart due to the passion fruit pulp addition (it was so tart, remember the story of this cake?). I wanted the cheesecake to have both mango and passion fruit together so I kept tasting it until I was happy with the result.

I was really happy with the result though. The texture is not as dense as regular NY cheesecake due to the addition of the fruit puree and I'm loving the tropical flavor! One thing I learn about making baked fruit-flavored cheesecake (at least for mango or mango passion fruit) is that the flavor concentrates and the color becomes stronger after baked. I'm making notes of all the things I need to modify for next time but until I get it perfected, I won't post the recipe just yet.

For those of you who wants to make this, you can use a basic cheesecake recipe, add some mango pulp/puree as well as passion fruit to the batter. Adjust the amount depending on your taste. Ah.. one more item I can cross off my list now, onto the next item... :)

you mentioned to use a basic cheesecake recipe but i don't really dare modify coz passionfruit puree is usually rather watery right? afraid i'll mess the whole thing up and the cake wouldn't set. do you hv any guideline as to how many ml of purees to use per cake? sorry for the trouble :p

bossacafez: Thank you :) Yes, passion fruit puree/juice is watery but don't worry about the cheesecake not being set. The cheesecake will still set and dense (just ilke how cheesecake should be), but not as much as without the fruit puree.

I think I used about 150ml of the passion fruit juice for 3 blocks of cream cheese, but the brand of passion fruit puree I'm using (Boiron) is very very tart, no sugar added. When I used it to make milk/passion fruit ganache for macaron filling, it didn't turn out well because it was tart. If your passion fruit juice is slightly sweet, you might not want to use the same amount. You can easily add and taste as you go. Just wondering though, how's your passion fruit pulp? is it sweetened when you used it to make milk choc/passion ganache? I'm still curious because I really do love that combo when I bought macarons

Your cooking skills (and photography skills) are just amazing! I would love to be able to make such a light, creamy-looking dessert like the ones you make for my soon-to-be husband. Do you ever give out your recipes? It would be nice to know how to make such a beautiful cheesecake!It must have been wonderful living in Indonesia, I love exotic fruits and mangos. :)

The Corner Girl: Thanks a lot! I still have a lot to learn :). I do give out recipes, in fact there are a lot of recipes in the previous posts. I don't usually give out the recipe yet if I feel like I want to tweak it more like this one, but as I said, you can really adapt it from your basic cheesecake recipe. I would really love to answer any of your question if you email me :)

hi again bertha, thx alot for the tip :) i've been wanting to buy boiron puree but haven't got the chance yet, will do so nx time. i'm currently using ravifruit which is the same thing - unsweetened, tart & watery. and when i make the passionfruit milk choc ganache, i add a little sugar to make the reduction so when i add it to the ganache it wouldn't be too watery. oh yea the combination is really good, i love it! pierre herme's mogador macarons are the best :D